War Imperils an Iraqi Trove
Of Antiquities and Monuments

By

Karen Mazurkewich Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated March 27, 2003 12:01 a.m. ET

The city of Nasiriyah, where Iraqi soldiers have engaged in fierce combat with U.S.-led ground troops in recent days, isn't just the site of two strategically important bridges across the Euphrates River.

It is also very close to the ancient city of Ur, the biblical birthplace of Abraham and the home of a ramped ziggurat that dates to the third millennium B.C. -- a historical treasure that was damaged by gunfire during the 1991 Gulf...